Telephone coin collector



Oct. 27, 1942. A. K. SMITH ETAL 2,299,354

' I TELEPHONE COIN COLLECTOR File April 2, 1941 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 n as s440 FIG. 4 as 54 '40" 4/ a4 as AKSM/TH "Wm/T085 EHSMYTHE ATTORNEY Oct.27, 1942. A. KQsMI'rI-I ETAL TELEPHONE com COLLECTOR Filed April 2, 19413 Sheets-Sheet 2 iwmrons A TTOR/VE'Y A. KFSMITH ETAL TELEPHONE COINCOLLECTOR Oct. 27, 1942.

3 Sheds-Sheet 3 Filed April 2, 1941 79 a III/I4 AKSM/TH By E.H.SMYTHEATTORNEY IN [/5 N TORS Patented Oct. 27, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE TELEPHONE COIN COLLECTOR Albert K. Smith, WestOrange, N. J., andEdwin H. Smythe, Evanston, Ill., assignors to Bell TelephoneLaboratories, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New YorkApplication April 2, 1941, Serial No. 386,458

5 Claims.

This invention relates to telephone coin collectors, particularly of thehandset type, and has for its primary object the provision in such acollector of means for selectively indicating to the remote centraloffice th character and the number of coins deposited in payment for theuse of the instrument.

In the usual type of coin collector the housing contains a multiple coinchute by means of which deposited coins are caused to strike distinctivesound signals which are in resonant connection with the talkingtransmitter mounted external to the housing. However, when a handset isused there is no resonant connection between the voice transmitter andthe sound signals and it, therefore, becomes necessary to providetransmitter means within the housing responsive to the coin actuation ofthe signaling elements in order that the central oifice operator may beinformed of the amount of money deposited.

In accordance with this invention a plurality of coin actuated signalsare mounted within the collector housing in close association with acommon pick-up transmitter in such a manner that the mechanicalvibrations of each of the signals will be eiiiiciently transmitted tothe transmitter without inducing vibrations in the other signal insuiiicient volume to cause interference with the transmission of thevibrations of the struck signal.

I For illustrative purposes, th invention will be described as appliedto a collector employing one gong for actuation by a coin of a firstdenomination and a second gong for actuation by a coin of a seconddenomination. The two gongs are preferably mounted within the collectorhousing on separatebrackets and a single pick-up transmitter ismechanically coupled to both brackets by a flexible connection in such amanner that the vibrations of the active gong are fully eiiective on thetransmitter but ar prevented from being effectively transmitted to thepassive gong. In one specific embodiment the transmitter is mounted on aplate with a pivotal type of flexible connection between the plate andeach bracket, such as a knife-edge bearing between the plate and eachbracket with resilient means for maintaining the plate in engagementwith each bracket by means of this knife-edge coupling. When one of thgongs is struck by a coin the resulting vibration of its mountingbracket causes the transmitter plate to rock about the knifecdgecoupling on the other bracket with little restraint to this rockingmotion. This permits the 55.

passive gong bracket to remain practically free from the vibrations ofthe activ gong bracket.

Referring to the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a general view of ahandset coin collector;

Fig. 2 is a wiring diagram of a telephone coin collector substation;

Fig. 3 is a rear view in perspective of the upper housing of a telephonecoin collector embodying the coin signal mounting arrangement of thisinvention;

Fig. 4 is a schematic view showing the coupling arrangements between thecoin signal supporting brackets of Fig. 3; v

Fig. 5 is a side view partly in section. of the upper portion of thehousing of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a rear view partly in section of the upper housing of Fig. 5with certain parts shown in broken lines;

Fig. 7 is a side view of the upper housing similar to Fig. 5 except thatthe sound signal arrangement has been moved about its pivoting axis toproject partially outside the housing;

Fig. 8 illustrates a front view of the apparatus seen in Fig. 6;

Fig. 91s a sectional view of one of the pivotal connections taken alongthe line 9-9 of Fig. 8;

Fig. 1D is a sectional view taken along the line lillfl of Fig. 8;

Fig. 11 represents a rear view of a coin collector upper housingembodying an alternative form of this invention;

Fig. 12 is a front view of the apparatus of Fig.'1l;

Fig. 13 is a schematic representation of the manner in which the coinsignal brackets of Fig. 11 are mounted;

Fig. 14 is a sectional. view of the transmitter plate mountingarrangement takenalcng the line i i-14 of Fig. 12;

Fig. 15 is a side view partly in section of the coupling arrangement ofFig. 14.;

Fig. 16 is a rear view of a coin collector upper housing embodying thisinvention in a further modified form;

Fig. 17 is a front view of the apparatus of Fig. 16;

Fig. 18 is a sectional View of the transmitter plate mountingarrangement taken along the line l8--l8 of Fig. 17; and

Fig. 19 is a schematic representation of the manner in which the coinsignal brackets of Fig. 16 are mounted.

Fig. l is a general view of a telephone coin collector of the samegeneral type as that disa multicoin chute 22 whereby a deposited nickel.strikes bell 24 once, a deposited dime strikes bell l 24 twice and adeposited quarter strikes gong 23' once, after which the coins aredirected into the usual coin hopper (no-t shown) for immediatecollection or for subsequent collection or refund depending on whetherthe collector is of the prepay or postpay type. It is obvious that thevoice transmitter 25 of the handset is not in resonant connection withthe sound signals 23, 2 and the present invention is directed to acoupling arrangement between these sound signals and a specialtransmitter located within the upper housing whereby the coin actuatedvibrations of either gong will be efficiently transmitted to thistransmitter without the production of an interfering signal from thepassive gong.

The top wall 26 of upper housing 29 has two downwardly directed lugs 21,23 about which is pivoted a bracket 29 which acts as the primary supportfor the quarter gong 23, the nickel gong 2d and a pick-up transmitter 34which is in resonant connection with both gongs. The swinging bracket 29is normally held in a desired position with respect to the coin chute 22by means of screws 36, 3i which hold the bracket 29 against suitablelugs projecting from the opposed inner walls of upper housing 29. Thequarter gong 23 is rigidly fastened to a metal bracket 35 (Fig. 8) beingmounted by a screw 35 to the bracket extension 31. Referring also toFig. 8 it will be seen that the nickel gong 26 is rigidly fastened toone end of a separate metal bracket 33.

The pick-up transmitter 3a is rigidly mounted on a plate 48; and bothbrackets 35, 38 as Well as plate 48 are independently and resilientlysupported from the main swinging bracket 29 in a manner illustrated inFig. 10 which specifically shows the connection between the swingingbracket 29 and the transmitter plate Ell. Referring particularly to Fig.10, plate M is coupled to swinging bracket 29 by a shouldered screw 4|which passes through an aperture in plate 40 into a threaded hole inbracket 29. Interposed between elements 29 and All is a soft rubberbushing 42 which has a neck portion separating screw 4| from the wallsof the aperture in plate 49; and between plate 40 and the head of thescrew is a soft rubber washer t3 and a metal washer 44. The quarter gongbracket 35 is similarly resiliently coupled to swinging bracket 29 by ascrew 45 provided with a soft rubber bushing d6 between the two bracketsand a soft rubber washer d! between bracket 29 and the head of screw 45.In a similar manner the nickel gong bracket :38 is supported fromswinging bracket 29 by a suitable screw 48 with a soft rubber bushing 49interposed between the two brackets. Each of these couplings betweenswinging bracket 23 and the three vibratory elements 35, 38 and 4!] issuch that these couplings offer little or no resistance to the freevibration of any one of the elements 35. 38 or 40; or, stated in otherwords, there is practically no energy transfer between gong bracket 35or gong bracket 38 and the swinging bracket 29; or between the swingingbracket 29 and the transmitter plate 40.

Transmitter plate 46 is also connected to each of the gong brackets 35,38 by a resilient pivotal connection of which the connection withbracket 33 is illustrated in Fig. 9. Bracket 38 is threaded to receive ashouldered screw 5| which passes through an enlarged aperture in plate40. Aligned with the center of screw 5| and rising from the surface ofbracket 38 are two spaced conical shaped protrusions 5B which are heldin engagement with the adjacent surface of plate Gil. Between the metalwasher 52 and plate 40 is a soft rubber bushing 53 which extends intothe hole in plate ii] so that the only metal to metal contact betweenbracket 38 and plate 40 is by means of the two knobs 59. An identicaltype of coupling between transmitter plate 40 and the quarter gongbracket 35 is provided and hence will not be described in detail exceptthat the corresponding protrusions or knobs on bracket 35 which are inresilient engagement with plate 46 are indicated by the referencecharacter 54 in Fig. 8.

A somewhat schematic showing of the relationship of the various bracketsto the transmitter plate 'll! is shown in Fig. 4. As previously stated,the soft rubber bushings 42, 46 and 49 offer little restraint to thefree vibration of brackets to, 35 and 38, respectively. When the quartergong 23 is struck by a deposited coin the resulting vibrations cause itsbracket 35 to vibrate and the vibrations of bracket 35 are communicatedto transmitter plate 40 through knobs 54 to induce correspondingvibrations in plate it] and cause pick-up transmitter 34 to send acharacteristic signal to the central office over the connecting line 56to indicate coin deposit (see Fig. 2). If a rigid coupling existedbetween transmitter plate 49 and bracket 38 the above-describedvibration of plate 40 would be transmitted through bracket 38 to set thenickel gong 2 3 into vibration, whose vibrations would be carried backto transmitter plate 40 to cause interference with the true signal andrender it difficult to determine at the central omce whether gong 24 orgong 23 had been struck by a deposited coin. However, the mountingarrangement of transmitter plate 40 is such as to avoid this type ofinterfering signal. When the quarter gong bracket 35 is set intovibration the transmitter plate 40 tends to rock about the knobs 50 as apivot with the bushing 53 (see Fig. 9) having sufiicient elasticity topermit this rocking movement whereby the amount of energy transferred togong 24 is too small to induce vibrations in gong 24 of sufficientintensity to be transmitted back to plate 4%] and cause any substantialinterference with the true signal from gong 23.

Similarly when the nickel gong 24 is struck by a deposited coin itsvibrations are transmitted through bracket 38 to plate 40 to cause theplate to rock about a pivoting axis defined by knobs 54 withsubstantially no mechanical energy being transmitted into bracket 35.The described arrangement, therefore, affords a direct resonantconnection between the-common pick-up transmitter 34 and each of thegong brackets by means of a pivotal type of connection between thetransmitter and each bracket with the connection being of suchflexibility that the vibrations freely picked up from either gongbracket are not substantially transmitted to the other gong bracket. Theconfigurations of the two gong brackets 35, 38 are not particularlycritical although they should possess sufficient stiffness that eachbracket vibrates as a unit when its associated gong is struck by a coin.The two brackets35, 38 are preferably spaced from each other with theirmajor portions lying in a common plane to facilitate the bridging of thetwo brackets by the transmitter plate 49. Pick-up transmitter 34 ispreferably of the inertia type and substantially non-responsive toair-borne signals and, for example, may be of the type disclosed in theA. F. Bennett U. S. Patent 1,863,322, issued June 14, 1932.

A somewhat modified form of the invention is disclosed in Figs. 11 to15, inclusive, wherein the swinging bracket 90 is pivotally supportedabout lugs 6|, B2 and in turnsupports the quarter gong bracket 63 andthe nickel gong bracket 64. The pick-up transmitter 65 is mounted on aplate 56 whichis coupled to both brackets 63, 64 but-there is no direct,connection between plate 66 and swinging bracket 60 as shown in theearlier figures. The two spaced screws 91, 68 serve to connect thequarter bracket 63 to the swinging bracket 69 in substantially the samemanner as shown in Fig. 10 except that hard fibre bushings 69, 10 may besubstituted for the soft rubber bushing 42 of Fig. 10. The two spacedscrews 14. serve to resiliently mount the nickel gong bracket 64 on theswinging bracket 30 in the same manner asshown in Fig. 10 with bushingsi I, i2 preferably being of soft rubber, these rubber bushings servingto prevent the mechanical vibrations of one of the gong brackets frombeing transmitted to the other gong bracket by means of the commonsupporting bracket 69. When, for example, the nickel gong 13 is struckby a deposited coin the resulting vibrations in bracket 64 tend tovibrate the transmitter plate 69 about a pivot which forms a part of thecouplingbetween plate 66 and the quarter bracket 63 while when thequarter gong TI is struck by a deposited coin the resulting vibrationsof bracket 63 tend to vibrate the transmitter plate 66 about a pivotforming a part of the coupling between plate 66 and the nickel bracket64. The type of coupling between plate 69 and each gong bracket isillustrated in Figs. 14 and 15 which specifically show the couplingbetween plate 99 and gong bracket 63. A shouldered screw 18 passesthrough an enlarged aperture in plate 66 and is threaded into bracket63. Between plate 66 and bracket 63 is a metal bushing 19 having astraight knife-edge 88 lying along a diameter of the bushing and incontact with the adjacent surface of bracket 63 on each side of thescrew. Between the metal washer 8i and plate 69 is a soft rubber bushing82 which has a neck portion entering the aperture in plate 69 toseparate the screw 18 from the plate. This resilient couplingarrangement is viewed from another angle in Fig. 15 where the knife-edgelies perpendicular to the plane of the drawing instead of being parallelto the plane of the drawing as in Fig. 14. When the nickel gong bracket64 is vibrated due to the coin actuation of gong 13 these vibrations inbeing transmitted to transmitter plate 69 tend to cause plate 66 to rock,65'without theproductionof any interfering sigbracket 81 by means of ascrew 88 and a soft rub.-

about knife-edge 89 as a pivoting axis. Similarly,

when gong bracket 93 is vibrated due to the coin actuation of gong 11these vibrations are transmitted to plate 69 to cause the plate to rockabout the corresponding knife-edge 83 which forms the point of contactbetween plate 96 and bracket 64.

The type of coupling just described enables the signal'vibrations ofeither gong "H or 19 to be efficiently transmitted to the pick-uptransmitter her bushing 89; while the nickel gong bracket 90 isconnected to the swinging bracket 87 by means of a screw 9| and a soft.rubber bushing 92 in substantially the same manner as shown in thesectional view of Fig. 10 of an earlier form of the invention. Thepick-up transmitter plate 93 is resiliently coupled to the two gongbrackets 86 and 99 and the swinging bracket 81 by an arrangementillustrated in Fig. 18 which specifically shows the coupling betweenbrackets 86, B! and transmitter plate 93. InFig. 18 a shouldered metalscrew 94 is shown passing through enlarged apertures in swinging bracket81 and plate 93 and threaded into the gong bracket 86. The soft rubberbushing'95 serves as an elastic coupling between screw 94 and swingingbracket 81 while 'a second soft rubber bushing 96 serves as an elasticcoupling between swinging bracket 81 and the transmitter plate 93. Thegong bracket 89 has two conical-shaped protrusions 91 in engagement withthe adjacent face of transmitter plate 93 to serve as a pivoting axisabout which the transinitter plate 93 may vibrate when the other end ofplate 93 is vibrated by the coin actuation of the nickel gong 98, whilethe soft rubber bushings 95, 99 serve to prevent any substantialtransfer of this vibrational energy to the swinging bracket 81. Thecoupling arrangement between nickel bracket 99, transmitter plate 93 andswinging bracket 81 is similar to that disclosed in Fig. 18 whereby thecoin actuation of the quarter gong in transferring its vibrationsthrough bracket 98 to transmitter plate 93 will cause plate 93 to rockabout the knobs 99 as a pivoting axis without any substantial transferof vibrational energy from transmitter plate 93 to either of thebrackets 99 or 8'1.

What is claimed is:

1. In a coin collector housing, a multicoin chute forreceiving coins ofdifierent denominations, a pair of plates, a separate coin signalmounted on each of said plates for selective actuation by coinstraversing said chute, means for supporting each of said plates withinsaid housing to permit the free vibration of each plate when its coinsignal is actuated, said pair of plates being spaced from each other,apick-up transmitter, and means for pivotally associating saidtransmitter with both of said plates whereby said transmitter respondsfreely to the vibrations set up in each plate by its associated signalwhile preventing any substantial transmission of these vibrations to theother plate.

2. In a coin collector housing, a multicoin chute for receiving coins ofdifferent denominations, a pair of stiff plates, a coin signal mountedon each of said plates for selective actuation by coins traversing saidchute, resilient means for supporting each of said plates within saidhousing to permit the free vibration of each plate when its coin signalis actuated, said plates being spaced from each other with theiradjacent portions lying substantially in a common plane, a third rigidplate bridging the gap between said adjacent portions and extendingsubstantially beyond the adjacent boundaries of said pair of plates,resilient means for maintaining a pivotal of said pair of plates, and apick-up transmitter rigidly mounted on said third plate in a positionintermediate said pivotal engagements.

3. In a coin collector housing, a multicoin chute mounted in saidhousing for receiving deposited coins of various denominations, a pairof brackets mounted in said housing, said brackets being spaced fromeach other and spaced from said chute, a gong mounted on one of saidbrackets and adapted to set said one bracket into vibration when thegong is struck by a deposited coin of one denomination, a second gongmounted on a second of said brackets and adapted to set said secondbracket into vibration when said second gong is struck by a depositedcoin of a diiTerent denomination, a third bracket bridging said pair ofbrackets and pivotally connected to each bracket of said pair, and atransmitter mounted on said third bracket.

4. In a coin collector housing, a multicoin chute mounted in saidhousing for receiving deposited coins of various denominations, a pairof brackets mounted in said housing, said brackets being spaced fromeach other and spaced from said chute, a gong mounted on one of saidbrackets and adapted to set said one bracket into vibration when thegong is struck by a deposited coin of one denomination, a second gongmounted on a second of said brackets and adapted to set said secondbracket into vibration when said second gong is struck by a depositedcoin of a different denomination, a third bracket, and means forproviding a direct resonant connection between said third bracket andeach of said first two brackets, said means comprising a knife-edge typeof connection between said third bracket and each of said first twobrackets.

5. In a coin collector housing, a multicoin chute for receivingdeposited coins of various denominations, a pair of brackets mounted insaid housing, said brackets being spaced from each other, a coin signalmounted on each of said brackets, a transmitter, a plate for supportingsaid transmitter, said plate and said brackets having overlappingportions, said plate being jointly supported by said brackets forreceiving mechanical vibrations from each of said coin signals, saidplate and the major portion of said brackets lying in substantiallyparallel planes, means for pivoting said plate about an axisintermediate the overlapping portions of said plate and said firstbracket when said plate is vibrated by the coin actuated signal on saidsecond bracket, and means for pivoting said plate about an axisintermediate the overlapping portions of said plate and said secondbracket when said plate is vibrated by the coin actuated signal on saidfirst bracket.

ALBERT K. SMITH. EDWIN H. SMYTHE.

